Should I run this through my car insurance company?

First off, see what kind of protection your policy provides for rental cars. The odds are that you will come out ahead if you turn in the claim, especially if you have been with them for a while.

memo to bythebay: do not let figbash borrow your car, especially if there are boulders in the area. ;P

I think you’d be better off filing a claim. If you have an agent that you trust, you can actually ask them about it before you file a claim.

Your credit card might even cover it. They usually have this kind of insurance and brag about it when selling you the credit card but never mention it again after they have you hooked. Check with the credit card company you used to rent the car.

@bythebay : Hah! The irony is that this was only my second accident in 20 years of driving, and I had just driven for about 8 hours. Most of it was in the dark, over mountain passes with ice, snow, white-outs and fog. I was really glad I even got there without a scrape on the car. Then, I pulled into the rental house, and went to back the car out of the driveway – and they had one of those stupid, decorative boulders lining the entrance. I could not believe that after all that, I actually scraped the car when I was going about 5 miles an hour in the driveway. Hmph!

@Judi: I already tried that. Not covered : (